Goldman Sachs ups Apple target to $750, expects 'solid' March quarter

Goldman Sachs on Wednesday increased its price target for Apple stock to $750, and has advised investors to buy in prior to next week's earnings report.

Less than a week before Apple is prepared to announce its earnings for the March quarter, analyst Bill Shope said he expects the report due next Tuesday afternoon to be "solid," with a likely upside. He hasn't been worried by recent volatility with the stock, which saw the company post its largest ever drop of 52 points on Monday.

He believes that Apple sold around 31.1 million iPhones in the quarter, along with 12.5 million iPads. Mac sales, he admitted, are likely to be "fairly lackluster," but he still believes his estimate of 4.3 million units and 14 percent annual growth is higher than Wall Street expectations.

While the March quarter is expected to be a positive, the company could be in even better shape for its current quarter, which concludes in June. It will mark the first full three-month span in which the new iPad is available, along with the reduced-price $399 iPad 2, as well as a fully ramped distribution channel with the iPhone 4S.

"In other words, the June quarter is when many of the recent catalysts begin to fully manifest into earnings power," Shope wrote in a note to investors, attempting to dispel concerns that the June quarter could be "catalyst-light."

He also expects Mac sales to rebound quickly over the coming months, as Apple is expected to revamp its product lineup with new laptops and desktops. In particular, Apple is widely believed to be preparing a redesigned lineup of its MacBook Pro notebooks, making them thinner and lighter, and also equipping them with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors.

The March quarter will be "the beginning of a very big year," in Shope's eyes, which has led Goldman Sachs to increase its price target for AAPL stock to $750, up from its previous prediction of $700.

Really? It would only be a worthwhile pump and dump if the stock were going to go back down. Well, it will go down again. It won't be a straight line up but you're going to have to get some good timing to play that game with AAPL. The recent target increases are good news for AAPL holders indeed but there's really no evidence that the motivation is for profit on a quick turnaround.

I was following AAPL in the afterhours yesterday and I noticed some real strange, big trades. I'm fairly new to trading, so perhaps this might be totally normal, but this sure seems strange to me.

AAPL was trading around 607 in extended hours when I was watching, and then all of a sudden, these huge volume buys come in at 609.70, a bunch of them in roughly 5 minute increments.

Why would somebody buy in at much more than the market price? The volume was also pretty big on these trades, so those extra dollars paid per share adds up to a significant amount. This was no small time trader buying up 100 shares of AAPL.

And just for fun, I listed some shares of mine to sell at 609.50, after I saw those weird trades and about 5 minutes later one of the big volume 609.70 trades happened again, but my sell order never got triggered. It was as if my sell order was totally ignored. AAPL was still trading around 607 when this happened.

I was following AAPL in the afterhours yesterday and I noticed some real strange, big trades. I'm fairly new to trading, so perhaps this might be totally normal, but this sure seems strange to me.

AAPL was trading around 607 in extended hours when I was watching, and then all of a sudden, these huge volume buys come in at 609.70, a bunch of them in roughly 5 minute increments.

Why would somebody buy in at much more than the market price? The volume was also pretty big on these trades, so those extra dollars paid per share adds up to a significant amount. This was no small time trader buying up 100 shares of AAPL.

And just for fun, I listed some shares of mine to sell at 609.50, after I saw those weird trades and about 5 minutes later one of the big volume 609.70 trades happened again, but my sell order never got triggered. It was as if my sell order was totally ignored. AAPL was still trading around 607 when this happened.

It is mostly idiots placing "market" orders after hours. The high-frequency trading people beat their order priority. Never buy or sell after hours. If you have to buy or sell after hours, never use market orders. If you think you have to do a market order after hours, just pick a price above/below the bid/ask numbers, and you should bypass the HFT people. (Adjust your price if the trade doesn't go through.)

The specific trades you are seeing aren't that big of a deal though-- 609.7 was the closing price, so people set limit orders at that point. When there were no sellers left at 608.00, the next available sellers stepped in.

There are very few times where purchasing after hours could make sense. Intense over-reaction to earnings is a common one, but my history tells me I lose out about 75% of the time I try to do that, as it opens lower the next day, or keeps dropping... or only a few shares trade at the discount.

It is mostly idiots placing "market" orders after hours. The high-frequency trading people beat their order priority. Never buy or sell after hours. If you have to buy or sell after hours, never use market orders. If you think you have to do a market order after hours, just pick a price above/below the bid/ask numbers, and you should bypass the HFT people. (Adjust your price if the trade doesn't go through.)

The specific trades you are seeing aren't that big of a deal though-- 609.7 was the closing price, so people set limit orders at that point. When there were no sellers left at 608.00, the next available sellers stepped in.

There are very few times where purchasing after hours could make sense. Intense over-reaction to earnings is a common one, but my history tells me I lose out about 75% of the time I try to do that, as it opens lower the next day, or keeps dropping... or only a few shares trade at the discount.

Thanks for the info.

I agree with you that it's usually a bad idea to place orders out of the ordinary hours. The trading site which I use only allows limit orders to be placed in the pre and after market.

I also see these weird prices in the after hours, like 611.3145. I don't know how it is for most people, but my trading platform only allows for two decimal places in an order.

Quote:
Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz
Pump and dump by ANALysts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddawson100

Really? It would only be a worthwhile pump and dump if the stock were going to go back down. Well, it will go down again. It won't be a straight line up but you're going to have to get some good timing to play that game with AAPL. The recent target increases are good news for AAPL holders indeed but there's really no evidence that the motivation is for profit on a quick turnaround.

Ignore Zither as with over 1,200 posts since just this past January he obviously loves hearing himself talk.

Really? It would only be a worthwhile pump and dump if the stock were going to go back down. Well, it will go down again. It won't be a straight line up but you're going to have to get some good timing to play that game with AAPL. The recent target increases are good news for AAPL holders indeed but there's really no evidence that the motivation is for profit on a quick turnaround.

Pump and dump is what the Analysts/Banks do every day. An investment bank buys the stock then the analysts talk up the stock so the share price goes up. The bank then sells their shares for a profit and because they are selling such a large volume of shares the share price automatically falls again (simple supply and demand economics). Then the bank buys the shares again at the lower price and repeats the cycle. They don't need large movements in the share price to make a lot of money as they are dealing in millions of dollars at a time.

Bankers or traders are not interested in long term profits or dividends, then need to hit their targets every month, every quarter, etc. A quick profit is all they are interested in.

I would not trust ANY advice on this website as that is exactly what some people on here are also doing. They need to constantly talk up the share price to make their profit. I wouldnt be surprised if half of them were bankers or analysts in disguise.

Pump and dump is what the Analysts/Banks do every day. An investment bank buys the stock then the analysts talk up the stock so the share price goes up. The bank then sells their shares for a profit and because they are selling such a large volume of shares the share price automatically falls again (simple supply and demand economics). Then the bank buys the shares again at the lower price and repeats the cycle. They don't need large movements in the share price to make a lot of money as they are dealing in millions of dollars at a time.

Bankers or traders are not interested in long term profits or dividends, then need to hit their targets every month, every quarter, etc. A quick profit is all they are interested in.

I would not trust ANY advice on this website as that is exactly what some people on here are also doing. They need to constantly talk up the share price to make their profit. I wouldnt be surprised if half of them were bankers or analysts in disguise.

That's why if you don't have the balls (or stupidity) to play their game, then do what any smart investor does, ignore that noise and buy on fundamentals. All the information you need on how a company is doing and how to gather information on how you think they'll do is out there. All the information you need to figure out whether a stock is low/fair/high valued is also out there.

This is why I invest in AAPL. Because even if these Traders can manipulate their way to a catastrophic drop in the stock price in the short term, the company fundamentals (as long as they stay intact) will always push it higher in the long run.